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This Week\'s Best Albums: December 14, 2010

Jónsi: Go Live CD/DVD

Jónsi: "New Piano Song" (live)

In April, Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson released his acclaimed solo debut, Go, and has been touring the world ever since with his stark, vibrant stage show – which was visually inspired by photographer Laurent Bochet’s documentation of a burnt-down taxidermy shop.

The tour has been a visual spectacle, with projections, animations, costumes, and lighting working in concert with Jónsi’s pop epics.  Now it’s all documented in Go Live, a CD/DVD double-disc release that includes live recordings from Go as well as unreleased new material.

The live footage can’t quite capture the grandeur of the tour, but it’s a well crafted and visually striking documentation.  To read more about the tour and the design that went into it, read our interviews with Jónsi and Fifty Nine Productions in Chromatic, our upcoming issue about the relationship of color and music.

Igor Boxx: Breslau (Ninja Tune)

Igor Boxx: "Last Party in Breslau"

Polish electronic artist Igor Boxx, also known as Igor Pudlo, is one half of electro-jazz duo Skalpel.  Skalpel explored Polish jazz from the 1960s and ’70s while reconstructing it with modern aesthetics, and though Igor Boxx’s solo debut has sonic similarities, it’s a weighty concept album about the Soviet Red Army’s 1945 Siege of Breslau.

Now known as Wroclaw, Breslau has been part of Poland, Germany, Austria, Prussia, and Bohemia during its tenuous history.  The siege in 1945 returned it to Polish control following the surrender of German forces at the end of World War II.

Boxx’s album is a sonic expression of Breslau, where he grew up in the 1960s during a thriving period of psychedelic music.  As an essentially instrumental album, it’s an open-ended interpretation of the city and its history, but according to Boxx, it’s not meant as a historical document.  Instead, the album is sort of a reflection on the consequences of war, including the tension that was felt in Breslau in the decades following the war.

The music is a head-nodding collage of woodwind melodies, percussive clangs, and atmospheric samples.  There are hooks and grooves, but it’s not nearly as lounge-y or dance-y as Skalpel’s material, and it’s an exciting new part of Igor’s career.

Listen to ALARM's (fittingly) exclusive premiere of "Alarm."

Off!: First Four EPs seven-inch box set (Vice)

Off!: "Panic Attack"

Old-school punk fans will quickly recognize the gruff vocalizations of Keith Morris, the original singer for Black Flag and Circle Jerks, a pair of the genre’s most seminal bands.  His recording credits have been sparse over the past 20 years, but late last year he helped form Off! with Burning Bridges frontman Dimitri Coats, who was producing a new Circle Jerks album that didn’t work out.

Rounding out the group are bassist Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and drummer Mario Rubalcaba of Earthless, Hot Snakes, and Rocket from the Crypt, and together, they’ve already released four EPs of material.  Now they’ve bundled the records together for a box set of seven-inches on Vice.

If you’re familiar with Circle Jerks or the overall punk paradigm, you know the drill: four-chord, minute-long blasts of rock aggression, with 1970s-style distortion and a few ’80s- and ’90s-style half-time breakdowns.  It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s a good primer to get the younger generation into harder punk music.

Stream the whole album here.

Birthmark: Shaking Hands (Hidden Agenda / Parasol)

Birthmark: "Fossil Record"

Our final pick this week is by Birthmark, the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Nate Kinsella.  Nate is the cousin of Mike and Tim Kinsella, the indie-rock brothers from Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Owls, and a host of other Illinois bands.  Nate has played in Joan of Arc too, and he has spent time in Make Believe with Tim and has recorded for Mike’s solo project, Owen.

Shaking Hands is Nate’s second solo album as Birthmark, and it’s another offbeat brand of indie singer/songwriter material — which might go without saying given the aforementioned credentials.  But the material achieves a wealth of diversity both in song structure and instrumentation.  The tracks range from straightforward to elaborate; there’s a splash of bossa nova and Belle and Sebastian harmonies on “Tokyo / Portugal,” and another track, “Burst at Night,” is a noisy but warm pop jam, with Sunny Day Real Estate-style vocals.

It’s an engaging indie album, and it avoids getting stale thanks to the different mixtures of acoustic guitar, bells, bass grooves, string accents, piano, vibraphone, horns, and layered vocals.

Listen to the whole album on Bandcamp.

Drone-doom poster duo Sunn O))) will curate the 2011 festival, guaranteeing another exceptional lineup.  The two official members (Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley) have participated in various past Roadburns, and they will follow curators David Tibet and Neurosis from past years.  Specifically, the group will choose the events of Friday, April 15, personally selecting bands to play before headlining the event.

Last year’s stellar roster included Shining (Norway), Russian Circles, Earthless, Kylesa, Enslaved, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Jesu, Bohren Und Der Club of Gore, Nachtmystiuim, and Shrinebuilder.  The 2011 festival will take place on April 14-17 in Tilburg, Holland.

If a trip to the Netherlands is out of your budget, or if you simply cannot wait until April to see Greg and Stephen, you can get your Sunn O))) fix in September during their collaboration project with Boris (ALTAR), performing at ATP New York and Brooklyn’s Masonic Temple.

Before recording a new album this spring, Converge will play a handful of shows, mostly during a week in March. Head to Deathwish Inc. for the full list.

Norwegian jazz/Balkan/surf group Farmers Market will perform with the Stravanger Symphony Orchestra for the country's MaiJazz festival in May.

A seventh album from Sunn O))), titled Monoliths & Dimensions, will be released May 18 on Southern Lord. The album includes guest appearances from Eyvind Kang, Julian Priester, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney, and Dylan Carlson.

Ethnically inspired electro-acoustic arists Balkan Beat Box are issuing a remix album, Nu Made, through JDub Records on April 7.

Tombs has posted its entire Relapse debut, Winter Hours, online to be streamed at www.winterhours.info.

Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas will release a new album with his Brass Ecstasy group, titled Spirit Moves, later this spring.

The Brooklyn studio of Daptone Records, home of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and The Budos Band, was robbed on Monday. A list of stolen or damaged items can be seen here, and if you see this stuff online somewhere, holler at Daptone.

Brutal hardcore group Ed Gein is practicing again after a year and a half of inactivity. The group plans to start writing new material and play some scattered shows.

Long-form UK rock experimentalists Crippled Black Phoenix will tour the US for two weeks at the beginning of April.

Jaguar Love is no longer playing with drummer Jay Clark (former guitarist of Pretty Girls Make Graves). The band currently is a two-piece with a drum machine and will debut this new lineup for an Australian tour.

An Albatross still needs a guitarist to tour this summer! Get in touch if you're talented, friendly, and can travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless and Witch begin a nine-day tour of the Northeastern US and Canada today.

Stoner-metal outfit Witch has announced tour dates starting in late February with Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless. Head to Tee Pee for the list.

Due to illness, Afrobeat star Femi Kuti has canceled his North American tour that was set to begin on Wednesday, January 7.

In anticipation of Bromst, his new full-length album due on March 24, Dan Deacon has posted "Get Older," one of the album's tracks, on imeem. Deacon also has a split 12" with electronic brethren Adventure coming out on January 27.

Converge and Supermachiner (side project with vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou) each have a new album in store for 2009.

Bannon's new experimental project, Irons, has a split 12" with Pulling Teeth also due in 2009. Bannon's label, Deathwish Inc., has a glut of releases planned for this year.

Chinese-American composer Wu Fei will perform on January 16, 17, and 18 in China to celebrate the recent release of her new album, Yuan, on Tzadik. Details can be found at her website.

Watch the brief trailer for Mastodon's new album, Crack the Skye, at the band's website.

Fifty free pairs of tickets are being given away to Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in France on January 16. To request a pair of tickets (by Monday, January 12), e-mail announcements@kronosquartet.org, with the subject line "Paris Sun Rings – MySpace", including your name and e-mail address in the body of your message.

Bassist/guitarist Reed Mathis, a founding member of 15 years, has left Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to pursue other endeavors. The group has a lineup with two new members that will perform for scheduled shows in January and February.

Founding drummer Pat Pengelly has quit Bedouin Soundclash, making the group, for now, a duo with Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair. The group's February tour dates will remain intact.

These Arms are Snakes has announced a month-long US tour, primarily hitting the Midwest and East Coast, that begins in late February.

Madlib has a new disc for his Beat Konducta series — Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 — that will be released February 10 on Stones Throw.

Danish weirdo rockers Powersolo will release their new album, Bloodskinbones, on February 23.

Via an interview with band manager Peter Mensch, the BBC reports that the instrumental members of Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of John Bonham) — are looking to tour and record a new album without Robert Plant. The article says that it is unknown whether the group will continue under the famous name, but in a separate interview with Mensch on musicradar.com, the manager emphatically states that "Led Zeppelin are over."

Apple is finally doing away with DRM protection (short for digital rights management) on its iTunes music files.

Tonight, punk ensemble World/Inferno Friendship Society will perform a special one-off gig at New York's Webster Hall. The show, a multi-media operetta based on the life of Peter Lorre, is part of the Under The Radar Festival.

Grails: Doomsdayer's Holiday (Temporary Residence Limited)

Fusing Indian music, 1970s film noir, and psychedelic sounds into heavy acoustic and electric rock, Portland's Grails are a wonderful anomaly. Doomsdayer's Holiday, as its name implies, cranks the group's heaviness beyond recent levels without losing its haunting, compelling melodies.

Grails: \"Reincarnation Blues\"

Earthless: Live At Roadburn (Tee Pee)
At the 2008 edition of the annual Roadburn Festival in Holland (spring break for anyone into heavy underground rock), San Diego psych-rock trio Earthless gave an impromptu headlining performance for 2,000 fans, having originally been scheduled at a venue one-tenth the size. Not only did its hypnotic, four-song, hour-and-a-half set blow away the crowd, but on recording it beautifully captures the energy and magnitude of the stellar live show.

Young Widows: Old Wounds (Temporary Residence Limited)

Old Wounds is the second album from Louisville rockers Young Widows since transforming from Breather Resist. Sporting an extra dose of heaviness, the disc opens with "Took a Turn," slowly building around a gritty, garage-floor bass riff before bursting with post-rock drums, multi-layered guitars, and reverberated shouts.

Throughout, the album changes tone and time at will like a lumbering, newly un-caged beast, while a primordial jungle pulse beats itself into a frenzy just below the crust.

Young Widows: \"Old Skin\"

Jolie Holland: The Living and The Dead (Anti-)
On her third solo album, Texas-born songstress Jolie Holland blends a variety of regional American folk styles. Topped with creamy vocals and bittersweet lyrics, tracks such as dark-toned "Fox In Its Hole" and wistful "Love Henry" make a long-lasting impression.

Jolie Holland: "Old Fashion Morphine"

Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

The newest full-length from punk contrarians Fucked Up moves through more variety of atmosphere than standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar-more than seventy guitar tracks at one point (or so they say…).

There's less stop-start fury than 2006 release Hidden World-more sheets of sound. "Golden Seal" sounds like a darker Sigur Rós, or even Jean Michel Jarre.

Fucked Up: \"No Epiphany\"

Marnie Stern: This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (Kill Rock Stars)

Backed again by untamed drumming beast Zach Hill, guitarist/singer Marnie Stern issues her sophomore effort with more frantic, high-pitched fret work, quirky vocals, and – through the carefully constructed din – catchy melodies.

Marnie Stern: \"Transformer\"

Hauschka: Ferndorf (FatCat)

German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann, here known as Hauschka, uses a decade of classical studies as his musical foundation. With that, home-rigged piano effects, and additional acoustic and electric instruments, he combines structural influences of electronica and classical minimalism to create a beautiful minor-key oeuvre.

Hauschka: \"No Wind Today\"

East Coast Avengers: Prison Planet (Brick)

Featuring the outspoken sociopolitical lyrics of rappers Trademarc and Esoteric, East Coast Avengers are more than just skilled rhymers that take aim at rightwing water carriers. The group pastes stirring Romantic violin melodies and portentous soundtrack clips over head-nodding beats, setting an appropriate mood for its imperative lyrical content.

ECA has already taken plenty of heat in the corporate media for releasing the track "Kill Bill O'Reilly," so let's give the group some love.

East Coast Avengers: \"Kill Bill O\'Reilly\"

Desalvo: Mood Poisoner (Rock Action)

Released on Mogwai's Rock Action label, Mood Poisoner may just have influenced the heavy grooves on its label owners' recent record. Based in Glasgow, Desalvo sound as though the Jesus Lizard were a modern hardcore/metal band.

Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets Of The Sun (Atavistic)

A re-mastered and long-lost relic of the Sun Ra vault, Secrets of the Sun is now available from Atavistic 46 years after its release on Saturn Records. And if being available for the first time on CD isn't enough, how does a 17-minute unreleased track sound?

That’s not all Nilsson has to be happy about these days. He and Graveyard bandmates, drummer Axel Sjöberg, bassist Rikard Edlund, and guitarist/vocalist Jonathan Ramm, are gearing up for their first major tour, in support of their recently released self-titled record on Tee Pee Records (Transubstans Records in Europe). The four-piece draws on blues driven hard rock, metal, and folk and revitalizes the classic sounds into a fresh and exciting package, making for one of the most powerful debut rock albums to appear in the first part of 2008.

Although Graveyard is relatively new on the scene, some of the band members have been playing together for over a decade. In 1995, Nilsson and Edlund formed a psychedelic rock quartet called Norrsken (“Northern Lights” in English). When Norrsken disbanded in 2000, guitarist Magnus Peelander went on to form doomy folk metal act Witchcraft and Nilsson and Edlund joined Albatross, a growly blues rock band whose lineup also included Sjöberg on drums.

Initially they considered Albatross to be a hobby, but five years later, the members began taking their music more seriously and had grown dissatisfied with the direction their sound had taken. When Albatross inevitably broke up, Nilsson and Edlund decided that for their next venture, they would head back towards their roots as musicians and songwriters. Nilsson explains, “I am a singer, but in Albatross I only played guitar. Rikard played guitar but he is a bass player. We also wanted a more straightforward [rock] sound.”

Together with Sjöberg and guitarist/singer, Truls Mörck (who left the band and was replaced by Ramm soon after completing their record), they began practicing as Graveyard. In the months that followed, Graveyard played a total of three shows, and began planning for a full-length album with Swedish boutique label, Transubstans Records. In the meantime, they posted a demo of some of their material on MySpace.

It was through a fairly routine activity that Tony Presedo, founder of Tee Pee Records, a New York based independent label with a penchant for psychedelic rock and a history of working with talented artists including Sleep, Earthless and Brian Jonestown Massacre, discovered the new band.

Presedo recalls, “They sent us a friend request. I usually just check ‘accept’ and move on, but I noticed that they had a cool graphic and that they were from Göthenberg. I like a lot of music from there so I went and checked it out. They were a doomy bluesy folk kind of thing with cool vocals. I liked it, but I let it go, because I had a lot of stuff going on at the time.”

But soon after, a friend inspired him to give the band another chance. “I was having lunch with Mario Rubalcaba from Earthless at South By Southwest last year and he asked if I had heard of them, and I said, ‘Yeah, I did’ and he said, ‘You should check it out again. You should really put that record out.’”

Listening to their samples again, Presedo found that he liked what he heard even more than his original impression. “I get that feeling from a lot of old records,” he explains. “The first listen is kind of cool and the second and third really sink in.” Releasing an album by a band in another country, especially one that hasn’t yet developed a large following can be a daunting task, but Presedo says that for a group like Graveyard, it’s all worthwhile.

“I love music a lot and sometimes I don’t give a shit how much work is involved, I just really like it and want to work on it. Moral of the story is; if something is good, you’ve got to get involved. You can’t let it sit there.” The band was caught pleasantly off guard when Tee Pee first expressed interest in working with them in the United States. They put the label in touch with Transubstans to work out the details of an international release.

Graveyard was recorded with Don Ahlsterberg (International Noise Conspiracy, Jose Gonzalez) in roughly two weeks, although mixing had to be delayed for months while Ahlsterberg was out of town. Fortunately, the end result was well worth the wait. The ten songs on the record contain intricate, electrifying riffs, catchy melodies and intense moods. Tracks such as “Evil Ways” and “Satan’s Finest” exhibit Nilsson’s powerful voice, which has gained favorable comparisons to the likes of Chris Cornell and Glen Danzig.

Nilsson modestly attributes at least some of his talent to genetics. “I’ve been singing all my life. It has come quite natural for me since I was a little kid. My mother is an opera singer, and my father is a violin player. I come from a musical family, but I didn’t have much training.” The record’s virtually seamless pacing makes it easy to overlook its intricacies and nuances on first spin, but they become impossible to ignore later on. This fluidity is at least partially due to Graveyard’s egalitarian songwriting process. “We jam a lot in rehearsal, we have ideas we bring to rehearsal. We usually put the songs together and different people write the lyrics. It’s quite equal between us.”

Graveyard will appear at 2008’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, before accompanying Tee Pee label mates Witch on a short jaunt through the East Coast then joining them on the road across Europe. Not bad for a band whose longest tour thus far has been ten days. Nilsson says, “We are looking forward to it very much. It’s been quite a dream since I was a little kid. To go on tour in the U.S.! To go on tour anywhere!"

Pictured Above: Annihilation Time

As soon as I entered Austin’s Encore Records, I should have surrendered my credit card at the door. Whose great idea was it to leave me unattended in a record store for six hours? The Austin, Texas independent music retailer (and DVD rental location) has one of the country’s best selections of metal and hardcore, as well as an impressive selection of music from local artists. Of course “local” in these parts means Roky Erickson and Scratch Acid, but that’s a story for another time.

On the afternoon of March 13, Encore Records played host to a showcase of Tee Pee Records artists and friends, co-presented by yours truly at ALARM Magazine. In between sets bands and fans enjoyed the sunny weather, skateboarded in the parking lot, and provoked jealousy in the poor, unfortunate souls who were stuck working at the tax office next door.

First performance was by New York country act The Weight, who brought in several fans straight from the Big Apple (ever see those Pace Salsa commercials?) Up next Oakland thrash-punks Annihilation Time, brought everyone back to life after last night’s hangover. North Atlantic Sound recording artists Ancestors combined heavy metal and desert rock into a ferocious two-song, thirty minute set. Gothenberg Sweden’s Graveyard made their second ever US appearance, performing classic rock, doom laden songs off of their recent self-titled album. Vermont rockers Witch played a tight, yet abbreviated set due to an evening commitment, that left everyone wanting more. San Diego power trio, Earthless finished off the afternoon with a rousing set of non-stop, instrumental psychedelic rock.

The Weight

Ancestors

Graveyard

Witch

Earthless

-Jamie Ludwig

Tee Pee Records: www.teepeerecords.com